UNKNOWN MASTER, French
(active 1425-1450)

The Expectant Madonna with St Joseph

1425-50
Tempera on walnut, 71 x 35 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Little can be said with certainty about the possible localization, style and date of this panel. Its subject is one of considerable iconographic rarity: the Virgin miraculous pregnancy and Joseph's anger and doubts about her purity. ALthough it is suggested by some scholars that the panel was probably the right wing of a diptych, there is no physical evidence to prove it.